Cyclone Chido not only ravaged Mayotte’s infrastructure but also laid bare tensions between the island’s residents and its migrant population.

France marked a day of mourning Monday for victims of Cyclone Chido, which devastated its poorest territory, Mayotte, over a week ago.

French Prime Minister François Bayrou believes dozens of people died after the cyclone hit the territory, rather than thousands.

Early last Sunday, after a night spent working at a small Mayotte maternity ward as a vicious storm devastated the French islands, midwife Lucie Gerard learned that a stranded woman was giving birth in a nearby home.

The devastation from Cyclone Chido that shattered corrugated metal shacks and thousands of lives on the island of Mayotte was both immediate and long coming.

France held a national day of mourning for Mayotte, its Indian Ocean territory devastated by a violent cyclone on Dec. 14, beginning in the morning on Monday with a minute of silence for the scores of residents left dead by the storm.